Learning in free fall A testimony of mental health, poverty, and race in American education

Nicole R. Terrizzi

Book - 2025

America's education system is in crisis. Every day in schools across the nation, our children feel the impacts of increasing budget cuts, teacher shortages, and threats to the accessibility of a meaningful and equitable education. But what happens when those leading our classrooms are in crisis themselves? Nicole Terrizzi's memoir, Learning in Free Fall, shares her path from a rural Iowa upbringing to teaching in an urban, Kansas City elementary school as part of the Teach for America program. Terrizzi offers reflections on the entrenched ails and ultimate failures of the systems meant to empower students and recounts her personal mental health journey that occurred in tandem, leading to counseling, maxing out the dosage of two an...tidepressants, and ultimately electroconvulsive therapy. With raw and honest writing, Terrizzi invites readers to explore what it's like to learn while you teach and brings her hard-won knowledge to the page for anyone interested in education, mental health, or the intersection of both. more